HOT GAS IN GROUPS AND THEIR GALAXIES

TREVOR J. PONMAN
School of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
AND
ALEXIS FINOGUENOV
Space Research Institute,
Profsoyuznaya 84/32, 117810 Moscow, Russia

1. Introduction

It is clear that there is .an important interplay between galaxies and the
group environment. At the velocity dispersions (~ lOOkm s-1 ) character-
istic of groups, the galaxies interact strongly, leading to triggering of star
formation, and galaxy merging. We can expect to see evidence' of-such pro-
cesses through differences in the properties of galaxies in groups compared
to field galaxies. Conversely, the galaxies affect their environment, as is ap-
parent from the presence of heavy elements in the hot intergalactic medium
(IGM) in .groups, which emit characteristic X-ray lines.
In the present contribution, we will examine the X-ray properties of
galaxies within groups, and the distribution of heavy elements in the IGM
revealed by imaging X-ray spectrometers.

2. Properties of galaxies in groups

Much of the evidence regarding the peculiarities of galaxies in groups has

been derived from the study of compact groups. Some of the effects seen are:
morphological and dynamical peculiarity (Mendes de Oliveira & Hickson
1994), HI deficiency in spirals (Williams & Rood 1987), lowered velocity
dispersion in ellipticals (Zepf & Whitmore 1993) and an anti-correlation of
spiral fraction with velocity dispersion (Hickson et al. 1988) and X-ray lumi-
nosity (Ponman et al.1996). However, any enhancement in star formation
rates appears to be very limited, and few galaxies look like the remnants
of recent mergers (Zepf 1993).
61
K. Koyama et al. (eds.), TheHot Universe, 61-64.
© 1998JACf. Printed in the Netherlands.
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 91.186.249.15, on 01 Oct 2020 at 11:28:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of
use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0074180900114433
 62 TREVOR J. PONMAN AND ALEXIS FINOGUENOV

What of the X-ray properties of the galaxies? In the field, many el-
lipticals have hot gaseous halos (Fabbiano et ale 1992), whilst spirals show
complex emission from sources within the body of the galaxy, and where
active star formation is present, also from hot coronae or winds (Read et
ale 1997). The ROSAT PSPC is an excellent instrument for detecting X-ray
emission from the hot IGM, but is not well suited to separating this from
emission associated with individual galaxies. In contrast, as can be seen in
Fig.l, the ROSAT HRI, with its much higher spatial resolution, is able to
study the emission from group galaxies, with little impact from the IGM.
We have analysed ROSAT HRI observations of 11 Hickson compact groups

Figure 1. The X-ray emission from the compact group HCG16 (contours) overlaid on
an optical image, as viewed (left) by the ROSAT PSPC, and (right) by the HRI.

(HCGs), detecting emission from a total of 27 galaxies and deriving X-ray

upper limits for a further 20. The properties of the late type (spiral and
irregular) galaxies in this sample are shown in Fig.2. The detected systems,
which include almost all of the galaxies with LB > 4 X 10 10 L G , all lie above
the field spiral line. This provides- clear evidence that late type galaxies
in these systems are X-ray overluminous. This is not a random sample of
HCGs, but a set chosen in part because of the presence of disturbed and
infrared-bright galaxies. Nonetheless, it is clear that in these systems at
least, the galaxies show enhanced X-ray activity.
In the case of early type galaxies, one might expect to see a reduction in
Lx relative to field galaxies, since dark halos, which are required to retain
the hot gas halos of ellipticals, should be stripped by tidal interactions in
such tight groups, as shown by simulations. The results (Fig.2) show little
sign of any such reduction in Lx, even if one disregards the high values
for the dominant central ellipticals, This suggests that dark halos have not

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 91.186.249.15, on 01 Oct 2020 at 11:28:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of
use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0074180900114433
 GROUPS & THEIR GALAXIES 63
o
O~T"'"T"""I-r-----r---r----.----.--,........"T""T""'I'---'

I I
fI) 0 fI) a
Ol~ Cl~
~ ~
Q) Q)
a o
"ll- "ll-
D D

X
...J

ci 10
10
LB ( 10 1°L 0 ) LB ( 10 1°L 0')

Figure 2. X-ray vs blue luminosity for a sample of (left) late type galaxies and (right)
early type galaxies in ReGs (20' upper limits are denoted with down arrows), compared to
the relations (from Fabbiano et al.1992) for field spirals and ellipticals. Elliptical galaxies
marked with a double circle are dominant central ellipticals, whose luminosity may well
be enhanced by a contribution from. the group IGM.

been stripped in many of these galaxies, a result which offers a challenge

to theorists.

3. Heavy elements in the intergalactic medium

The ASCA SIS provides an opportunity to map the strength of the emission
lines from a number of elements within the IGM in groups and cool clusters.
The best determined abundances are those of Fe and Si. Since the _Si/Fe
ratio is very different in the ejecta from supernovae of types Ia and II, the
distribution of these elements gives strong clues to the processes which have
contaminated the primordial IGM.
Fukazawa et ale (1997) have studied a sample of 40 clusters and groups
with ASCA, deriving abundances for Fe and Si in an inner and outer region
in each case. Finoguenov & Ponman (in preparation) have studied a much
smaller sample, of three groups plus one poor cluster, but have mapped
the radial distribution of the elements in detail - allowing for the effects of
projection and the blurring of the instrument psf. The results of these two
studies are consistent (cf Fig.3) and show that
- Abundance gradients are common in cool systems
- Abundance ratios are -vsolar in the inner regions of both groups and
clusters, indicating a mixture of SNIa and SNII ejecta
- In clusters the abundance ratio is tilted towards SNII abundances (high
Si/Fe) at larger radii
It appears that the total iron mass-to-light ratio may be lower in groups
than clusters (though observations do not yet extend out to the virial

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 91.186.249.15, on 01 Oct 2020 at 11:28:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of
use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0074180900114433
 64 TREVOR J. PONMAN AND ALEXIS FINOGUENOV
10 10

10'
.•..•.....•.... ,..•............•.•......

...•..

....
10·

10· 10' 10 10
Fe mass
~
~

HCG 62 ~
~~, -I-
10· ~~ ,,~ 1.·····
~,~ ........•....
••IS . :;;..---:;;..---:;;..---~~ -.-- ...•.....•..•.............••.
E
~~~,

:
.
rii .
10" ~
~,'
,
~:~.:-~ , ..

10"
Fe mass

Figure 3. Cumulative mass of Si from the centre of the system is plotted against that of
Fe, for the poor cluster AWM7 and the compact galaxy group HCG62. In each plot, the
short dashed lines corresponds to solar abundance ratio, the grey line to SNIa (Thielmann
et al.1996), and the two uppermost lines to two models for SNII (Woosley & Weaver 1995,
Tsujimoto et al.1995).

radius in such small systems)

These results support a picture in which SNla playa larger role in groups
than in clusters, due to the loss of much of the SNII ejecta from the rela-
tively shallow potential well in these smaller systems.

References
Fabbiano G., Kim D.W. &£. Trinchieri G. 1992, ApJS 80, 531
Fukazawa Y. et al. 1997, PASJ submitted
Hickson P., Kindl E. & Huchra J.P. 1988, ApJ 331, 64
Mendes de Oliveira C. &£. Hickson P. 1994, ApJ 427, 684
Penman T.J., Bourner P.D.l., Ebeling H. & Bohringer H. 1996, MNRAS 283, 690
Read A.M., Ponman T.l. & Strickland D.I{. 1997, MNRAS 286, 626
Williams B.A. &. Rood n.r. 1987, ApJS 63, 265
Zepl S.E. 1993, Apl 407, 448
Zepf S. & Whitmore B.C. 1993, Ap~ 418, 72

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 91.186.249.15, on 01 Oct 2020 at 11:28:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of
use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0074180900114433